ドイツ：テロ対策・通信記録保存の法律について憲法裁判所が違憲判決
やりますねぇ、ドイツは。日本ではできないな。
Germany's top court overturns EU data law
By Quentin Peel in Berlin and Stanley Pignal in Brussels
Published: March 2 2010 13:12 | Last updated: March 2 2010 21:43
The highest court in Germany ruled on Tuesday that a central plank of antiterrorist security legislation in the European Union, requiring the storage of at least six months' worth of telephone and internet data, was contrary to the country's fundamental law.
The constitutional court in Karlsruhe ordered the immediate destruction of all the data currently held on telephone calls, e-mails and text messages in Germany and cancelled the legal basis for police and intelligence agencies to request such information.
The decision was greeted with shock and alarm by police and security experts, and with delight by civil liberties campaigners.
It is certain to be met with dismay in Washington, where the US administration has been campaigning for greater European co-operation on data exchange to support intelligence operations against potential terrorists, organised crime and money-laundering.
The latest blow to transatlantic intelligence co-operation follows a vote in the European parliament two weeks ago to block the exchange of financial information on banking transactions, the so-called Swift agreement. Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, Joe Biden, the vice-president, and General Jim Jones, national security adviser to Barack Obama, president, had all lobbied for the legislation to be approved. A further US request for the exchange of detailed airline passenger information is due to come before the parliament in the near future, and will face similar hostile questioning.
Although the court ruling did not question the original European Union directive requiring all member states to store telephone and internet data for up to 24 months, it will inspire efforts in Brussels to revise the law. Six member states, including Sweden, Ireland and Austria, have declined to put it into effect.
Viviane Reding, the European commissioner responsible for justice and fundamental rights, has promised to review the directive to see if it is compatible with those rights.
The judgment also exposed fresh tensions within the ruling centre-right coalition in Germany, with members of the majority Christian Democratic Union calling for new legislation to be drafted, while the minority Free Democrats said the court's ruling called the concept of mass data storage into question.
The court was responding to a complaint brought by 35,000 plaintiffs, the largest number ever associated with one case. The judges ruled that the German legislation putting the EU directive into effect violated a constitutional guarantee of privacy, ensuring the "security and integrity" of communications by post and telephone.
Judge Hans-Jürgen Papier, president of the court, said the mass storage of data amounted to "a particularly grave encroachment, with a potential knock-on effect never previously seen in the [German] legal system".
He issued an order to delete all the stored material with immediate effect.The decision was welcomed by Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, the Free Democrat justice minister who was herself one of the plaintiffs as a private citizen. "It is a real day of joy," she said.
But Thomas de Maizière, the CDU interior minister, called for urgent action to redraft the law so that mass data storage would be possible again. Although it did not outlaw data storage, the ruling requires that the purpose of such storage must be defined, its use sanctioned on each occasion by a court of law, and justified on the grounds of serious crime or a direct threat to the security of the state.
"This will have a big impact on cross-border and transatlantic information exchanges," said one western diplomat. It meant the end of "massive dredging of data for hints of terrorist activity" in Germany.
Lady Sarah Ludford, a leading campaigner for data protection in the European Parliament, said MEPs would face huge lobbying pressure from their governments and European airlines to approve the exchange of passenger information. She warned that if the agreement was blocked, the US might retaliate by refusing the airlines landing rights in America.
Germany's top court overturns EU data law
By Quentin Peel in Berlin and Stanley Pignal in Brussels
Published: March 2 2010 13:12 | Last updated: March 2 2010 21:43
The highest court in Germany ruled on Tuesday that a central plank of antiterrorist security legislation in the European Union, requiring the storage of at least six months' worth of telephone and internet data, was contrary to the country's fundamental law.
The constitutional court in Karlsruhe ordered the immediate destruction of all the data currently held on telephone calls, e-mails and text messages in Germany and cancelled the legal basis for police and intelligence agencies to request such information.
The decision was greeted with shock and alarm by police and security experts, and with delight by civil liberties campaigners.
It is certain to be met with dismay in Washington, where the US administration has been campaigning for greater European co-operation on data exchange to support intelligence operations against potential terrorists, organised crime and money-laundering.
The latest blow to transatlantic intelligence co-operation follows a vote in the European parliament two weeks ago to block the exchange of financial information on banking transactions, the so-called Swift agreement. Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, Joe Biden, the vice-president, and General Jim Jones, national security adviser to Barack Obama, president, had all lobbied for the legislation to be approved. A further US request for the exchange of detailed airline passenger information is due to come before the parliament in the near future, and will face similar hostile questioning.
Although the court ruling did not question the original European Union directive requiring all member states to store telephone and internet data for up to 24 months, it will inspire efforts in Brussels to revise the law. Six member states, including Sweden, Ireland and Austria, have declined to put it into effect.
Viviane Reding, the European commissioner responsible for justice and fundamental rights, has promised to review the directive to see if it is compatible with those rights.
The judgment also exposed fresh tensions within the ruling centre-right coalition in Germany, with members of the majority Christian Democratic Union calling for new legislation to be drafted, while the minority Free Democrats said the court's ruling called the concept of mass data storage into question.
The court was responding to a complaint brought by 35,000 plaintiffs, the largest number ever associated with one case. The judges ruled that the German legislation putting the EU directive into effect violated a constitutional guarantee of privacy, ensuring the "security and integrity" of communications by post and telephone.
Judge Hans-Jürgen Papier, president of the court, said the mass storage of data amounted to "a particularly grave encroachment, with a potential knock-on effect never previously seen in the [German] legal system".
He issued an order to delete all the stored material with immediate effect.The decision was welcomed by Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, the Free Democrat justice minister who was herself one of the plaintiffs as a private citizen. "It is a real day of joy," she said.
But Thomas de Maizière, the CDU interior minister, called for urgent action to redraft the law so that mass data storage would be possible again. Although it did not outlaw data storage, the ruling requires that the purpose of such storage must be defined, its use sanctioned on each occasion by a court of law, and justified on the grounds of serious crime or a direct threat to the security of the state.
"This will have a big impact on cross-border and transatlantic information exchanges," said one western diplomat. It meant the end of "massive dredging of data for hints of terrorist activity" in Germany.
Lady Sarah Ludford, a leading campaigner for data protection in the European Parliament, said MEPs would face huge lobbying pressure from their governments and European airlines to approve the exchange of passenger information. She warned that if the agreement was blocked, the US might retaliate by refusing the airlines landing rights in America.
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